Natural Gas, Telematics and a New Man at Isuzu

This week Diesel News is talking about Natural Gas, Telematics and a New Man at Isuzu in our weekly news review.

Isuzu has announced the appointment of Daniel Ciantar as its new Fleet Sales Manager for Victoria and Tasmania. He moves into the role after serving in a Fleet Planning and Support role within the company, where he handled client relations, as well as supplier and account management.

“I’m absolutely rapt with this role,” said Daniel. “Since taking it up in June, I’ve already had the chance to interact with several prominent fleet managers in Victoria and Tasmania and to discuss what they’re looking for from a truck brand. I’ve also been able to demonstrate to them how the reliable, fit-for-purpose engineering that Isuzu packs into every truck can help businesses to grow.”

Natural Gas From Iveco

FPT Industrial, the engine maker for Iveco trucks has unveiled its newest and most powerful natural gas engine. The Cursor 13 Natural Gas is reckoned to be the most powerful 100 per cent Natural Gas engine available on the truck market. The Cursor 13 NG is part of a long term strategy for FPT Industrial to broaden and strengthen its position in the Natural Gas segment.

The new Cursor 13 NG delivers power up to 460 hp at 1,900 rpm and torque up to 2,000 Nm at 1,100 rpm. This is up to 15 per cent more power and 18 per cent more torque than FPT Industrial’s 8.7 litre NG engine. Cursor 13 NG is a mono-fuel, using 100 per cent Natural Gas and it can run with CNG (Compressed Natural Gas), LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) and bio-methane, a solution which is capable of reducing CO₂ emission levels near zero.

Chinese Ute Achieves Safety First

The LDV T60 Double Cab Ute is achieved the top five-star standard issued by independent Australian crash test experts, ANCAP, marking the first time a Chinese commercial vehicle has achieved this benchmark result.

“We are extremely pleased that the LDV T60 Double Cab Ute has achieved this result, but not surprised,” said Dinesh Chinnappa, General Manager of LDV Automotive Australia. “From the moment the idea of the T60 was conceived LDV set itself the goal of meeting the Gold Standard of safety, the ANCAP Five Star rating, and it has single mindedly perused this result.

“LDV called on the resources of China’s largest car making group, their parent company SAIC, with access to China’s largest research and development facilities and the largest test track in Asia, they designed into the T60 all the safety features needed to achieve this result and then they relentlessly crash tested the T60 to ensure it met these standards. Then they took the T60 to independent test centres to validate their results. The thoroughness of their work, the detail of design and the quality of their construction of the T60 is confirmed by this independent result.”

Telematics Numbers

Transport Certification Australia (TCA) has released its Annual Report for the 2016-17 financial year. During 2016-17 the agency observed a significant growth in the use of technology applications administered by TCA, and the adoption of in-vehicle technologies.

Key results include:

A 27% annual growth in the number of devices used that meet TCA requirements (or can do so with some amendments)